BSAC Club Experiences

[jw2013]

I was wondering what people thought about their local BSAC club? I'm a member of one, training for my Ocean Diver qualification and finding the progression a little slow for my liking.

Our Training Officer is a cool guy, a good laugh, very knowledgeable and gives a good sense of security when in the pool, especially important when new to diving.

I think the club is a little unorganised at the moment and this is impacting on the training. I'm going to reserve full judgement until I've been there longer but I was wondering what others people's experiences were with their BSAC club?



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[rivers]

I think the new ocean diver trainees get through their training in about 3 months in my club. Pool training does take a while as we only have the pool for an hour every week. I know there have been a few trainees in the past that felt they weren't quite ready for open water so elected for a couple of extra pool sessions. Same for some people doing open water.
But, my club does a lot of diving throughout the year. We have a rib down in Newhaven all year that goes out most weekends, lots of hardboat trips (day and weekend) plus inland trips as well.

 

[jw2013]

Our pool sessions are about an hour every second week and its cancelled sometimes too. I started at the beginning of November, I've had two pool sessions and just completed my third theory last night. How does this compare to your timetable?

I enjoy it but it feels for almost 2 months (and now they're breaking over Christmas) attendance I've not made much progress and with the open water sessions not starting until March 2014 I feel the Ocean Diver qualification and future diving - building experience with other divers - is way, way off.

Last night for example, was a booked pool night, the Advanced Divers used the pool instead and we left early after the theory. It's this that makes it feel the new divers aren't given the full guidance/help to progress whilst the long termers are using the evening for a meet up and to progress their own diving.

I was wondering if this was the pace and situation in all BSAC clubs. Obviously I appreciate its a voluntary arrangement but I don't want to feel I'm wasting my time and the time of the instructors.


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[rivers]

Our OD trainees don't get ousted out of the pool so other training can take place. I think OD training takes priority over other training if there are a lot of trainees. If we only have a couple of trainees, the any training that needs to happen can happen together.

The current intake of trainees probably won't see open water until March to be honest. It's winter, the water temp is starting to drop and topside conditions are dismal at best (only a few of us brave winter diving. i'm one of them). We want to keep people diving, not scare them away! From March-June, the trainees will do their OW dives and experience dives to hopefully be fully qualified come early summer. But, i know the trainees will go out on the club rib as well as on some of the other club trips to get their experience dives in (it's not all in a quarry or lake).
It's a bit sh*t that your training night was cancelled because other training was taking place. Not fair on the newbies for sure.
I did my initial training with PADI a few years ago while I was working on ships, so I can't comment based on personal experience. Our club tries to progress people from OD through to sports within 12-18 months of joining. From what I've seen, most of the pool training takes place in the winter and summer, with the training and experience dives taking place during early and late season so all the fun dives can be had during the best part of the dive season.
Hope that helps, and if you have any questions feel free to send me a PM

 

[Edward3c]

Hi jw2013,

As I said on your other thread the club should have explained how the training was going to be conducted and got your buy-in before training started.

No, not all BSAC clubs are the same, for example mine doesn't offer Ocean Diver as we don't have a pool. That said we do provide 3 or 4 instructors to the monthly regional training sessions which are open to any BSAC member. These sessions give members the opportunity to complete OD, SD, DL and AD practical lessons, we occasionally run the Buoyancy & Trim Workshop and should be running an Advanced Lifesaver Award assessment in the near future.

Kind regards

 

[DanMont]

I am with a University dive club currently and am serving as the equipment officer for the club. As a university club we have a lot of new divers and training taking place and that is pretty much the focus for most of the year. This years (we run off of Academic years) Ocean Divers started in October and have all qualified now (at the end of November) apart from those that had issues on the weekend trips we ran to Capernwray to do the training. We break for Xmas and most of Jan/Feb (time to organise gear, plan trips and get the compressor and regs serviced) before training starts again in mid Feb/ March. The last few Ocean Divers will be finishing off their training and then Sports Diver training should be finished by the end of March (which I will be joining this year). We then run an Overseas trip every year at Easter (off to Lanzarote this year, very excited!) and use the remainder of the year to run trips to places like the Farne Islands and St Abbs. Before it all starts over again in September.

Being a University club we have a lot of members who never really get active with the club, and a committed core of members who pretty much take part in everything! We also suffer from a lack of Instructors and Dive Leaders, which can hamper trip running and training. The club has slowly, over the last couple of years, improved after a few years of a lack of people willing to run it properly. Sometimes it can be frustrating - especially when you end up filling tanks for a couple hours several times in one week because nobody else can be bothered to do it - but overall I enjoy it a lot. We are also building links with the local non-university clubs who have started helping with training and let us join in on weekly pool sessions when they aren't too busy.

 

[jw2013]

Thank you for your comments and views guys. I probably sound like I'm having a winge but I'm just excited and looking forward to spending more time in the water and when the pool nights are cancelled its VERY frustrating. On a lighter note, I must have looked like a psychopath last night, grumbling to myself as I carried by kit back to the car in the rain as J was only told when I rocked up with it all that we weren't going in the pool! Haha.

I think once I get my OD qualification, I can be in more control of when and where I get into the water and start learning more. I imagine it's like learning to ride a motorbike, you learn for your test, then you "learn to ride". I mean your real experience and knowledge comes once qualified and doing it regularly and learning from others.

DanMont that's a good progression, in 8 weeks (their qualification time) I've only done 2 pool sessions and 3 theory lessons. I like to learn quick and thorough when I am learning something new.

Is it possible to join more than one BSAC diving club at the same time? I'd like to join another club but remain a member at both.

Thanks again for all your words! I very much appreciate your views!!!


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[Edward3c]

...
Is it possible to join more than one BSAC diving club at the same time? I'd like to join another club but remain a member at both.
...

You can be a member of as many BSAC Branches as your prepared to pay for. The BSAC Membership fee is only paid once - to the first Branch you join.

Remember you can undertake BSAC training at a BSAC Centre (school) the one local to me is at Lochaline see here and enter you postcode.

 

[jw2013]

That's cool. I can't remember what I paid for my club membership now. It was around £380 ish I think for re BSAC membership AND the club.

Another option you say is to do specific courses and pay for their time/resources rather than join that club running it? Have I understood that right?


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[Edward3c]

That's cool. I can't remember what I paid for my club membership now. It was around £380 ish I think for re BSAC membership AND the club.

Another option you say is to do specific courses and pay for their time/resources rather than join that club running it? Have I understood that right?


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Yes you understood correctly. Not only are there UK based BSAC Centres we have some overseas, like the Red Sea. In addition we have three franchises:



BSAC Thailand – this one teaches in English.
BSAC Korea
BSAC Japan